Bloomberg’s investigation has unearthed some interesting information regarding Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, and its VIP clients.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has accused Binance of not registering in the US and violating federal laws governing commodity markets.
The CFTC lawsuit cites Jane Street Group, Tower Research Capital, and Radix Trading as examples of US customers who accessed the platform, but it does not accuse them of wrongdoing.
Despite this, Radix and Tower did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comments, while Jane Street Group declined to comment.
Radix co-founder Benjamin Blander later stated that he did nothing wrong by trading through offshore companies on Binance and cooperating with the CFTC.
It is interesting to note that the founder of FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, began his career at Jane Street Group.
The CFTC complaint alleges that Binance “actively facilitated the violation of US law” by helping some US-based traders evade KYC procedures.
Binance and Changpeng Zhao were also sued for advertising unregistered securities, which cost the exchange $1 billion.
Recently, the share of the Binance crypto exchange in the spot market has decreased significantly, according to digital asset data provider Kaiko.
Despite starting 2023 on a positive note and becoming the undisputed market leader with a share of over 70% at the end of 2022, Binance could not hold on to this position for long.